What’s the difference between weather and climate? (click to access the lesson) - Little Shop of Physics at Colorado State University
Student Objectives:
Students will:
be able to tell the difference between weather and climate
be able to define weather
be able to define climate
Time: 30 - 45 minutes
Grade Level(s): 5th +
Standards:
Climate Literacy - 4 a Definition of climate and climatic regions
Climate Literacy - 5 b Observations are the foundation for understanding the climate system
Benchmarks for Science Literacy - 4B/M2ab ( Grades: 6-8 ): The earth is mostly rock. Three-fourths of the earth's surface is covered by a relatively thin layer of water (some of it frozen), and the entire planet is surrounded by a relatively thin layer of air.
NSTA National Science Education Standards - D.3.4 ( Grades: 5-8 ): The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth's rotation on its axis and the length of the day.
Vocabulary:
Climate - is determined by the long-term pattern of temperature and precipitation averages and extremes at a location
Metaphor - a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar
Weather - the day-to-day conditions of a particular place
Description: Students will use candy to demonstrate the difference between weather and climate.
Ideal extension: Ensure that there are 31 random M&M’s in each bag. Hand the students a piece of graphing paper (or plain) and crayons/ map pencils associated with the 5 M&M colors (orange, blue, red, brown, green, and yellow). Have them create a bar graph with the five M&M colors as the x-axis (representing different types of weather) and the y-axis will be the number of M&M’s (times that weather was seen in the month of March). Tell them to leave room so they can create bars representing actual weather days based on the NERRS System Wide Monitoring Program. Below is a three minute introduction about the System Wide Monitoring Program.
Have the students use the information in the table below, in combination with the NERRS SWMP graphing tool, to count the number of days with the corresponding weather. It would be beneficial if students used the other side of their paper to draw a table to do tick marks as they identify each day’s weather.
NERRS SWMP Graphing Tool
Students should start with “Air Temperature” and “Total Precipitation”. Ideally look at 12:00 p.m. for each day; however, if it has rained at all within that day (0:00 a.m. - 23:59 p.m.) count it as rained but use the 12:00 p.m. temperature reading to determine whether it’s cold or hot. Do this for all 31 days. Then change the “Total Precipitation” to “Max Wind Speed”. Repeat the same steps however determine which days were "Warm and Sunny" or "Warm and Windy".